Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 8 – After many years
of controversy, a bust of Stalin has been erected in Novosibirsk but not in the
prominent place his backers wanted but rather on land belonging to the local
organization of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a compromise often
made in Russia today but one that is tilting toward Stalin and the KPRF.
Stalin’s supporters began pushing
for a monument to him two years ago, but they faced opposition from the
population which launched a petition drive against the idea and organized
protests and from within the city administration which feared that the statue
would attract vandals and lead to controversy (sibreal.org/a/29928271.html and
news.ngs.ru/more/66081385/).
But now by majority vote in city
agencies and in an experts commission, the city has agreed to the erection of a
statue but only on land owned by the KPRF, which presumably would be
responsible for dealing with any acts of vandalism directed against it, thus
getting the city off the hook (/kprfnsk.ru/inform/press_office/35933/).
When the Stalin bust is dedicated
tomorrow, it will add to the number of statues there – one was pulled from a
dump and put back up earlier in Novosibirsk in a more prominent place (newsru.com/russia/08may2019/stalin_open.html)
– and elsewhere. Three, for example, have gone up in Stavropol Kray in recent
months as well (kprf.ru/party-live/regnews/184887.html).
Not everyone is pleased by this
development. Aleksandr Rudnitsky, head of the Memorial office in Novosibirsk,
says that putting up any monument to Stalin “mocks the memory of the millions
of victims of Stalin’s terror and of the people whose fates were crippled as a
result.”
The Memorial activist points out
that surely such statues are a violation of local ordinances: Novosibirsk
prohibits putting up any memorials which offend human dignity and public
morality. Stalin certainly fits into that category, Rudnitsky suggests.
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